The present invention has many purposes but the primary purpose is to facilitate searching for gold dust and nuggets on dry land and in dry creek beds. It is well-known that during the rainy winter season in the gold country, water washes down gulleys and creekbeds which during a great part of the remainder of the year are dry. This water frequently carries with it gold dust or nuggets which have been dislodged at higher elevations. When the water runs over cracks and crevices in rock there is created a natural sluicing action which tends to deposit the heavier gold carrying particles in the cracks and wash the lighter dirt, rocks and other debris away.
Many gold seekers visit these areas after the winter rains when the creekbeds are dry to search the various cracks and crevices for gold nuggets or dust. However, such crevices frequently are too deep and narrow for the insertion of the hand to recover any nuggets and of course it is substantially impossible to retrieve any gold dust that might lie at the crevice bottom. Additionally the task is laborious and time-consuming.
It is the primary purpose of the present invention to provide a portable collecting apparatus for the efficient removal of rocks, debris and soil from such crevices for subsequent processing to remove any gold that might be in the debris.